Chapter 7: Is this my wife in the photo?
When Li Jianzhi woke up, he had a lot of the original body's memories in his head, but... it was too chaotic. Some of the names and appearances in his memories could match up, but his family background and experiences were all messed up.
It's like knowing someone named Chen Ruifeng, who looks and has the same name. He's a sergeant, and he has a girlfriend surnamed Lin. He once brought her to the unit for a meal and they stayed at the guesthouse for one night. He posted on his WeChat Moments that he was going to get married.
Chen Ruifeng himself did not want to continue his service and planned to retire. His girlfriend encouraged him to stay in the army and even encouraged him to take the military academy entrance exam. Later, Chen Ruifeng was admitted to a military academy in a new first-tier city. Many people joked that he should have some conscience and not change girlfriends like others.
Because military careers are unstable, most people cannot serve in their hometown. When choosing a girlfriend or marriage partner, many people have a lot to consider. Some people tend to choose the location where they serve, while others tend to choose girls from their hometown, with the latter being the most stable.
The former, choosing to find a spouse in the place of service—this is too unstable. Naval officers like Li Jianzhi face their first assignment upon graduation. The assignment situation is different every year. The units recruited each year are like taking the civil service exam. The positions and numbers vary, and the policies are also different. Sometimes the assignment is fixed, and sometimes it is based on self-selection according to performance. When it is based on self-selection, sometimes the top three are required to go to the most difficult environment... However, the naval assignment is not too bad. Most naval bases are located in relatively developed coastal cities.
Of course, many people also go to remote islands to guard them, but in a year or two, for some people, guarding an island is still a hot commodity. There is internet, food, drink, and a mobile phone... Some homebodies are even happy to guard islands, but finding a wife becomes a problem.
After the initial assignment, you weren't stationed there permanently; you had to move with the unit. You might find a girlfriend near your post, but then the unit changes troop assignments or you're transferred elsewhere, and the girl can't go with you, so you have to break up.
Getting into a military academy is considered a transfer, and some people will break up with their original girlfriends and choose to find another girlfriend near the school.
Later, I heard that Chen Ruifeng was no exception; he broke up with his girlfriend surnamed Lin before even going to school.
There was also a Chen Ruifeng in the 1970s who became an officer who graduated from the same school as him. He looked just like the Chen Ruifeng he knew before, but his personality was also very strange.
...My memories are all jumbled up.
If he were in a completely unfamiliar environment, Li Jianzhi could still distinguish between two different memories, but when many people had overlapping faces and different backgrounds and personalities, he would be a little confused.
The original owner of this body, Li Jianzhi, was truly a workaholic, like a superhuman. He was always either working or studying, and his mind was filled with blue skies, the sea, white clouds, and warships...
Captain Li used to be teased as a "workaholic," while his mother called him a "primitive savage living in seclusion." But Li Jian thought to himself that he wasn't that backward... He would watch movies and TV series, play games on his phone, and read the trending news every day. He wasn't really that backward.
His mother is a woman who always keeps up with the times. In recent years, she has bought several drones and travels around taking pictures. When she goes out to buy groceries, she even takes a "mechanical dog" that cost tens of thousands of yuan to carry things. She also said that she will rely on robots to take care of her in her old age...
Li Jianzhi has a month-long vacation every year, and his mother would laugh at him, saying, "You're like a released prisoner," implying that he had just come out of prison and was unaware of the changing world and the shifts in social customs.
Tsk, Li Jianzhi thought he was quite perceptive watching his mother's antics every year. His mother was an oddball, extravagant yet stingy, miserly yet shrewd... a contradiction. She would eat at least eight dishes in one meal, very particular about them, and would throw some away after only a bite or two. She was extremely extravagant and wasteful in her lifestyle. As for being stingy and shrewd, sometimes when she had the leisure to go grocery shopping, she would haggle with the vendors over a penny or two. If she could save a penny or two, she would be happy for half a day.
His mother's WeChat Moments are filled with sales assistants from luxury brand handbag stores. They're always flattering her, calling her "sister" all the time. While young girls online are showing off bags worth thousands or tens of thousands of yuan, his mother buys a lot of luxury brand bags every quarter, using them like "grocery shopping bags"—purely consumable items to be used and then thrown away. She'll stuff two scallions into her bag, which costs tens of thousands of yuan, and the sales assistants will say, "This is perfect for packaging radishes and eggplants..."
It's incredibly captivating.
His mother was the kind of person who could be extremely cultured old lady at times, act like a nouveau riche at others, be petty at times, or have a sense of superiority and mock other people's rural behavior... She was a contradiction.
Li Jianzhi himself was also somewhat conflicted.
Li Jianzhi came from a well-off family and was good-looking. In junior high school, he was rumored to be the school's most handsome boy. Many people liked him, but he was also ostracized by the boys. Because he was naturally fair-skinned, even fairer than most of the girls in the class, and his parents were divorced, the naughty boys in the class often gossiped about him. Li Jianzhi did not date girls early on, nor did he play with male classmates much. He was used to having a cold face and studying alone.
When he got to high school, he grew taller, reaching over 1.8 meters, and joined the school basketball team. He made a few good friends, but perhaps because he had developed a cold attitude in junior high, people around him said that he was too aloof and not very sociable. In fact, Li Jianzhi also played online games.
Later, when he attended military academy, many of his classmates came from well-off families, but few were wealthier than him. He couldn't join in their conversations and had to remain silent, because many went to military academy simply for the tuition-free education and stipends, with direct job assignments upon graduation. Due to their different family backgrounds, they didn't see eye to eye, but he always maintained good interpersonal relationships, mostly casual acquaintances, and was appreciated by his teachers and superiors.
After graduation, managing people unconsciously instilled a sense of authority in Li Jianzhi, making him appear as a dull, expressionless person. However, he actually enjoyed watching gossip and having fun. But his refined, aloof demeanor, cultivated since childhood, prevented him from fitting in with ordinary gossip-loving people. The moment he appeared, people would immediately stop chatting, leaving Li Jianzhi somewhat frustrated. His persona inexplicably became that of a high-and-mighty figure.
They often have some training and study activities. Many officers live together and attend the same training class. They have various ranks and talk about their love lives, but... not a single one of them introduces him to a girlfriend.
He was clearly good-looking, from a good family, and had a good job, but he was still unmarried at thirty-seven, or rather, thirty-six. Of course, Li Jianzhi himself was also picky.
Men naturally prefer women who are beautiful, knowledgeable, and have common interests. Many non-commissioned officers' wives are beautiful, but most of them do not have a bachelor's degree. Li Jianzhi has had several girlfriends, most of whom had postgraduate degrees. They could chat for a while, but they could not spark much love and he did not feel particularly moved.
Perhaps the woman felt too much pressure dating him after a while, so she took the initiative to tell him that it wasn't a good match, and Li Jianzhi didn't try to stop her.
I'm thirty-six years old and I've never even kissed a girl's face. If I told people, I doubt many would believe it.
His father was a traditional Chinese literature professor who instilled in him from a young age the values of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness, hoping he would become a gentleman and serve his country. Li Jianzhi possessed a certain gentlemanly spirit and adhered to proper etiquette. He believed that one should not harm young girls before marriage, a conservative idea that his open-minded mother would certainly look down upon.
Openness has its advantages. His mother never pressured him to get married. People in Shanghai tend to get married late, with most not getting married until their late thirties. Therefore, Li Jianzhi never had any thoughts about romantic relationships when he was in his twenties. But when he got to his thirties and his job became stable, he found it hard to find a partner.
Knowing his age, he was unwilling to ruin young girls in their early twenties, so he chose women over twenty-seven or twenty-eight. However, women in their late twenties had to consider more factors and were unwilling to waste too much time on Li Jianzhi. Li Jianzhi's family and work conditions were also daunting, so the spark naturally faded. In addition, Li Jianzhi's work made it difficult for him to take care of his family...
In conclusion, he simply doesn't have a wife... With such great qualities, it's hard to believe he's still single.
He harbored a deep resentment about not having a wife, while Li Jianzhi, a man from Northeast China in the 1970s, did.
"Won't this still lead to a divorce?"
Li Jianzhi didn't take the telegram too seriously. So what if they were going to divorce? Li Jianzhi thought to himself that he was probably destined to be a lonely monk for the rest of his life. The warship was full of men, and he might die like a monk, never having the chance to kiss a woman.
If he were the male protagonist of a time-travel novel, he would probably belong to the "no female lead" category.
Focusing on my career is more important.
Li Jianzhi tossed the telegram aside, first went to report to his superior, and then returned to his single dormitory. He took off his hat and placed it on the table. When he opened the drawer to take out a document, he inadvertently saw a black and white photo stuck in the corner.
He took it out and held it in his hand, his handsome face turning as red as if it were burning.
The photo shows a very pretty young woman with two long braids, an oval face, delicate eyebrows, and a pair of exceptionally bright almond-shaped eyes. She looks at the camera with a slight smile, which is extremely captivating. Even in a black and white photo, the charm of her bright and lively eyes cannot be concealed.
She doesn't have the typical V-shaped face of internet celebrities; instead, she has a smooth, oval face without any silicone-like texture. She's poised, elegant, and has an outstanding presence. There are several photos of "her" in her drawer, each one more vivid and beautiful than the last—a true top-tier beauty.
Her name was written on the back of the photo—Qin Xiangxiang.
"Her name is quite nice, and she looks like a great beauty."
The once calm lake of my heart was now rippling, as if a wisp of electricity was passing through my body, and my body warmed up. It was like being in a heated room in winter, and my skin became too dry and itchy.
The unusual itching and palpitations made it impossible for me to calm down.
"Is this my wife?"
Damn, we're both named Li Jianzhi and look exactly alike, so why do I, in this era, have such a beautiful and captivating wife?
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